Name: Alix von Knebel Doeberitz
Track: Architecture
Studio: Architecture Design Crossovers
Year: MSc 3/4 / 2025
Type: Graduation Project
Tutor: Roberto Cavallo, Alper S. Alkan
Description:
How to build a paradise on Earth? Situated in Madrid—one of the cities most affected by the urban heat island effect worldwide—the project “Temporal Constructed Refugia” investigates the concept of refuge as a spatial, ecological, and cultural condition within the urban fabric. Hereby, it explores the urgent need for refuge—both from climatic extremes and from the sensory overstimulation that defines life in contemporary cities. Engaging with symbolic, historical, and technological precedents, the thesis envisions a site that redefines refuge—not only as shelter, but as a space for balancing human and non-human forms of regeneration, thereby aiming to reconnect people with their natural environment. Drawing on Madrid's origin, founded on and shaped by water, the project reimagines the city's lost connection to this essential element. By employing low-tech strategies and taking maximum advantage of the site's naturally favourable conditions, the intervention reactivates water in diverse forms across the ensemble.